POEM
A Maul for Bill and Cindy’s Wedding
Swung from the toes out,
Belly-breath riding on the knuckles,
The ten-pound maul lifts up,
Sails in an arc overhead,
And then lifts you!
It floats, you float,
For an instant of clear far sight—
Eye on the crack in the end-grain
Angle of the oak round
Stood up to wait to be split.
The maul falls—with a sigh—the wood
Claps apart
and lies twain—
In a wink. As the maul
Splits all, may
You two stay together.
“A Maul for Bill and Cindy’s Wedding” from Axe Handles copyright © 1983 by Gary Snyder. Used by permission of Shoemaker & Hoard.
Source: Axe Handles (1983)
Gary Snyder began his career in the 1950s as a noted member of the “Beat . . . MORE »
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